I think my $matching_key, is returning the number of keys that match the grep and not the actual hash key.

Then you should write a program to check 

$ perl -le " print scalar grep /./, qw/ a b c /; "
3

[download]

Yup, grep in scalar context returns the number of matches.

Now in list context it returns a list :) 

$ perl -le " print for grep /./, qw/ a b c /; "
a
b
c

[download]

So to get the first from the list, we use parens 

$ perl -le " ( $foo ) = grep /./, qw/ a b c /;  print $foo "
a

$ perl -le " print( ( grep /./, qw/ a b c /  )[0] ); "
a

[download]

See Tutorials: Context in Perl: Context tutorial

And see again Re: help with loop and start making functions, your program is very hard to read :)

In reply to Re: grep keys in hash and retrieve values by Anonymous Monk
in thread grep keys in hash and retrieve values by AWallBuilder

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.